Learn. Show. Repeat.

Tag: Learning

  • Labels

    e-learning. Social learning. Game-based learning. Mobile learning. eLearning. Experiential learning. Micro learning. Just-in-time learning. Gamified learning. Self-directed learning. elearning.

    The learning field loves a label.

    But does it really matter?

    The organisations we work for aren’t interested in our labels, they care about one thing: Impact.

    If our solutions to business problems lack impact, then it doesn’t matter what the solution is labelled because the problem will remain. So, we can keep throwing more ‘types’ of learning into the mix and hoping for the best or we can invest time into examining the impact our solutions have made.

    To be continued…

    Dymo label maker
    Image source: Morguefile

  • Sharpening Your Axe

    There was a woodcutter. He used to work incredibly hard to ensure a good livelihood, but he always felt that his work was not giving him enough output. Every day he would decide to work harder and longer, but at the end of the day he would find his pile of wood smaller than the previous day.

    One day, when he was busy as usual, he noticed a bigger pile of logs with a woodcutter sitting next to it. He asked, “How can you have a bigger pile than me in less time, and how can you relax so early in the day?”

    The other woodcutter replied, “I take time off to sharpen my axe.

    Pile of logs

    I first read this story in a blog post by Ryan Tracey and it’s stuck with me ever since. In Ryan’s post, he talks of manager’s not giving their teams time to ‘sharpen their axes’ and how this is a short-sighted approach. However, whilst I agree with his view, I also believe that all eLearning ‘woodcutters’ should find the time for sharpening rather than waiting for our workplaces to give us the time. In our field, it’s important for us to sharpen our axes to not only be more productive but to be better practitioners.

    Most people – if not all – transition into the (e)Learning field and while there are many creating eLearning, only a small few actually do it well. If you pick up a guitar and strum the strings you’ll hear sound. But there’s a big difference between producing sound from an instrument and producing music. Creating eLearning is no different in that there’s a big difference between creating an interactive content dump and something that has impact and helps people to perform better.

    Generally speaking, eLearning has a poor reputation for being an effective solution for workplace learning. One of the reasons for this is that anyone can buy an authoring tool, maybe complete a course in how to use it, watch some tutorials and then call themselves a developer. However, the tools in trying to make eLearning creation easier, have unintentionally created a false sense of competence in many users. By this I mean that just because someone can easily insert some text and pictures and interactive objects into a tool and then click a few buttons to convert it into a SCORM file for uploading to an LMS doesn’t mean that they can really create useful, meaningful eLearning. Using an authoring tool and an LMS is a start but there’s many more skills required.

    Everyone is busy and many people believe they don’t need to improve (or don’t realise they need to) because they can already do it but it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s up to all of us to DO something regularly to hone our skills. The only people who can improve our industry are those working in it – you and me. So, what can you do to sharpen your eLearning axe?

    Here’s some ideas:

    Firstly, spend some time reflecting and note the areas that you’d like to improve. If you don’t have any areas for improvement, look for ways to share your expertise with others.

    Join an association such as The eLearning Guild, The Learning and Performance Institute or Australian Institute of Training and Development.

    Read some blogs, here’s some suggestions.

    Listen to podcasts, check these ones out.

    Read some books, here’s some of my favourites.

    Join a community such as E-Learning Heroes.

    Connect with other practitioners on social media – LinkedIn, Twitter and/or Facebook.

    Attend a conference.

    Join a Meet-up group in your area Third Place and IDeLers (if you’re in Australia)

    The important thing is to do something regularly, actively and make it a habit. If you look at anyone who is good at what they do regardless of their field, they continually develop themselves. We should be no different.

    What do you do to sharpen your axe?

    Image source: Morguefile

  • Learning and Development: You Have One Job

    In many organisations, the learning and development (L&D) area are known as the people who deliver information – mostly via courses – either online or in a classroom. Many of which are essentially nothing more than one-off, content dumps.

    We say that we want to be business partners and express our desire for a seat at the table so we talk about “capacity building”, “a learning organisation” and “ecosystems” in an attempt to achieve this.

    We talk about blending, flipping, shrinking, socialising and gamifying learning events but often the execution has the wrong focus.

    We’ve become overly fixated on frameworks and models and waste time debating their proportions instead of using them as a guide and not a prescription.

    We cling to concepts that don’t exist yet dismiss others despite the evidence from research that exists.

    However, the role of everyone working in learning and development is simple:

    To support the people in our organisations who do the actual work.

    We’re not operating machines, or digging trenches, or serving customers in shops or on the phone, or treating patients or selling widgets. We’re not working outside in the elements. We’re not (usually) working night shift or on the weekend. But the people in our organisations are and we must ensure they can perform whenever and wherever they are working.

    I’ve been reading Innovative Performance Support by Conrad Gottfredson and Bob Mosher and they refer to the ‘Five Moments of Learning Need’ (p37-38):

    New: when people are learning how to do something for the first time.

    More: when people are expanding on what they have learned.

    Apply: when people need to plan what they need to do, remember what they may have forgotten or adapt their performance to a unique situation.

    Solve: when people need to deal with problems, something breaks or doesn’t work as intended.

    Change: When people need to learn a new way of doing things that requires them to change ingrained skills.

    My takeaway is that different moments of need require different solutions and the current one size, one event fits all approach is not effective. So, before we launch yet another information overloaded course, we should ask ourselves a question – is this really supporting our people to do the work they need to do?

    Image source: Morguefile

  • 10 Blogs Every eLearning Professional Should Read

    Recently my friend Ryan Tracey posted a list of 10 journals every e-learning professional should read in response to my list of 5 Books Every eLearning Professional Should Read which was in response to his 5 papers every learning professional should read (this feeling like the blogging equivalent to a game of tennis).

    So I’m returning the ball with a list of blogs that are worth checking out if you are an eLearning professional and you are looking to improve your craft as each blog is written by someone working in the field. They’re a mixture of writing styles and content – sharing practical tips, showing their work and lessons learned, looking towards the future of online learning and some offer reflections on their own personal learning. Many of these folks can also be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.

    The one thing that each blog has in common is that the author is making a positive contribution to the wider eLearning field (IMHO).

    Here’s each of the blog authors listed in alphabetical order (click on a name to go to their site):

    Kristin Anthony – Kristin also has a podcast series called ‘Dear ID’ where she interviews instructional designers

    Helen Blunden – Activate Learning Solutions

    Donald Clark – Plan B

    Tom Kuhlmann – The Rapid E-Learning blog

    Melissa Milloway Mel’s Learning Lab (Mel also writes articles via LinkedIn)

    Cathy Moore – Saving the world from boring training

    Clark Quinn – Learnlets

    Mike Taylor – Ask. Learn. Share

    Will Thalheimer – Will at Work Learning

    Christy Tucker – Experiencing E-Learning

    I’m also adding Ryan Tracey himself whose blog I came across a few years ago and s one of the first I started to read on a regular basis.

    Feel free to add to this list via the comments below.

    tennis court

    Image from Morguefile.

  • My Word for 2017

    Towards the end of last year I starting thinking about my word for the coming year. I’ve seen posts on this before and recently I even came across the hashtag #oneword. Essentially, you choose a word that will guide your actions over the coming 12 months.

    Last year, I chose ‘build’ as my word which you can read about here. I felt I had mixed results with what I wanted to achieve last year so initially my word for this year was going to be ‘habit’. But on reflection, habits don’t just happen, I really need to develop the behaviours that become habits.

    So my word for 2017 is: Discipline

    In order to build good habits in learning and in life, you need to have discipline. Many of the goals I had last year, are still relevant. I want to further explore and grow and keep learning but sometimes I get caught up doing the things that I’m comfortable with. This year I want to be more disciplined in my approach – to make time for learning new things, reflecting, blogging, sharing and hopefully creating opportunities. I also want to be more disciplined with my own health and well-being (yes I know, everyone says that!).

    I like the beginning of a new year, it’s a fresh start and full of possibilities. So what’s your word for the year?

    Image source: Shutterstock